A TALENTED student used her dressmaking skills to design and create a gown for the mayor of Castle Point.

Daisy Banks, a 19-year-old student at Seevic College in Runnymede Chase, Thundersley, was chosen to design mayor Maryse Iles’s gown for last weekend’s civic dinner.

The commission gave her a taste of what it might be like to be a professional fashion designer, after she was recommended by her tutors.

Mrs Iles said: “I did have a dress I was going to wear, but when the principal at Seevic College suggested one of the students could make a dress as part of their course, I thought it would be a great boost for our borough and, of course, to promote the college and showcase some of the excellent work that goes on there.”

Daisy came up with ten sketches, from which Mrs Iles was asked to pick two final designs.

The aspiring designer was also invited along to the civic dinner, at Runnymede Hall, with her family.

She said: “I had so much fun making the dress and, as this was my first experience of fitting a dress to a real person, I learned a lot through this opportunity.”